Bioregional Futures with We Are Avon at Finisterre, Bath

We Are Avon recognizes that the river is born from the land and that a community based bioregional approach is needed to create a flourishing future for river, land and people. We Are Avon’s river campaign has already gained international media interest and mobilised 12 councils to commit to the Avon charter. They are now embarking on an exciting chapter with a bioregional hub at a farm on the edge of Bath. Join the We Are Avon team for a panel discussion on bioregional futures and how to develop this approach. Speakers: Meg Avon Role: UK’s First River Bride & Rivers lead at We Are Avon Bio: Meg Avon is a performance poet, campaigner and river rights researcher with the University of the West of England for the Bristol Urban Avon. She is the author of poetry collection My Avon and also featured in the documentary film Rave on For the Avon in 2025. Meg coordinates ‘River Guardians’, their guardianship groups and their seasonal events for the charity We Are Avon. The data the guardians collect raises awareness about water pollution and the power of community action as part of the Rights of Nature movement. She is also the woman who famously married her river in 2023 as a symbolic act of love and protest. She hopes that one day her marriage to her river can be both legally binding as well as symbolic. Elena Blanco Role: Associate Professor of International Economic Law - School of Law, UWE Bio: Elena is an Associate Professor at the Bristol Law School. Her work sits at the intersection between public and private international law, and revolves around coloniality, post-capitalism, rights of nature, regulation of corporate actors and the linked climate, environmental and democratic crises of neoliberal corporate globalisation. Against these she focuses on place based, nature and community-based solutions. She is a co-director of We Are Avon with responsibilities of legal lead, risk register, river rights and regulatory compliance. Hamish Evans Role: Co-founder of Middle Ground Growers and We Are Avon Bio: Hamish Evans is co-founder and director of Middle Ground Growers, an organic market garden at Weston Spring Farm, Bath, and of We Are Avon, a community benefit society working on bioregional regeneration of the Avon River catchment. Rooted in agroecology and community land ownership, he works with farmers, growers and communities to connect healthy food, living soils and thriving rivers across the Avon bioregion. Christine Ratcliffe Role: Development Coordinator, Bioregional Land and Food Hub with We Are Avon Bio: Christine’s career began working in data on a natural flood mitigation project, and she went on to work an interdisciplinary role on a forest-friendly business incubator programme tackling the global commodity drivers of deforestation. Since 2021 she has worked with charities and nature-friendly businesses on communications and campaigns, alongside paid and voluntary roles in farming. She holds an MSc in Geographic Information Science from the University of Edinburgh where her research focused on habitat modelling under climate change scenarios.